No basta con ser trabajador, ser leal, y aprender rápido. Esos son requisitos indispensables, no factores competitivos. Tienes que entender en dónde está tu valor y cómo incrementarlo.

Tengo el placer de poder conocer y platicar con ejecutivos extraordinarios todos los días. La primera conversación siempre comienza con las cordialidades típicas, pero en cuanto esas terminan, la primera pregunta que me hago mientras escucho como se describen es: “¿Quién eres?”

La pregunta no va encaminada a conocer un nombre, título, puesto, la empresa en donde trabajan o a quién le reportan. Tampoco de quién son hijos o quién es su compadre. En muchas ocasiones terminó la plática y mi pregunta se convierte en: “¿Tú mismo sabrás quién eres si te quito el título de la tarjeta de presentación?” La pregunta es tan sencilla como lo es compleja.

Las preguntas que todos nos debemos poder contestar son:

• ¿Quién soy en el contexto de mi competencia?
• ¿Por qué me va a contratar alguien a mí en lugar de otra persona?
• ¿Qué impide que otra persona me quite el puesto?

No basta con ser trabajador, ser leal, y aprender rápido. Esos son requisitos indispensables, no factores competitivos. Tienes que entender en dónde está tu valor y cómo incrementarlo.

El mundo ha cambiado dramáticamente en los últimos 15 años. La globalización, la facilidad en la comunicación y la disponibilidad de información, rompieron muchas barreras. La competencia global jamás había sido tan intensa y tan agresiva. El nivel ha empujado la expectativa de excelencia al punto en donde es imposible ser competitivo sin un alto grado de enfoque y especialización.

Hay quien podría argumentar que Lionel Messi es el mejor jugador de fútbol del mundo. Este argumento junto con un asador y unas cervezas podría alimentar el fuego de una discusión durante toda una noche.

El punto es el siguiente: La excelencia de Messi es como delantero. Si le pedimos jugar defensa se convierte en un jugador más. Si lo mandan al arco a ser portero, la historia ya es otra. ¡Messi es grande! Pero eso no significa que puedo convencer a uno de mis clientes que lo contrate como Director de Ingeniería porque trae muchas ganas, aprende rápido y tiene cualidades de campeón. Bueno, conozco a algunos que lo harían, pero ese no es el punto.

La excelencia para poder sobresalir requiere enfoque, especialización y dedicación sobre un periodo de tiempo extendido. Requiere convicción para no desviarnos del objetivo y enfrentar los sacrificios que se puedan requerir durante el camino. Implica asumir riesgo.

Desafortunadamente el enfoque y el compromiso nos plantean un dilema que incluso despierta nuestro instinto de supervivencia. La realidad es que nuestro instinto nos impulsa a buscar tener opciones y puertas abiertas. Nos mantiene en una zona de confort. Si no tenemos cuidado se convierte en una trampa: El enfoque y la especialización nos pueden cerrar oportunidades, pero no enfocarnos y no especializarnos nos pueden impedir sobresalir y peligrosamente convertirnos en alguien del montón.

La manera de enfrentar el dilema es considerar nuestras opciones con un enfoque a largo plazo y una visión clara de nuestro plan de vida y plan de carrera. La ventaja de la globalización y la especialización es que nos permite ampliar los mercados en donde podemos competir. Messi logró ampliar sus opciones fuera de su ciudad natal de Rosario, y eventualmente fuera de la Asociación del Fútbol Argentino.

Cierto, es Messi. Pero no es diferente al empresario que decide apostarle, estudiar, enfocarse, y dedicarse a la innovación en energía alternativa o el médico que decide dejar su país y su zona de confort para perseguir ser el mejor neurocirujano.

Imposible ser todo, para todos, y además ser de lo mejor.

Regresemos a la pregunta: “¿Quién eres?”

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Jose J. Ruiz is a Principal in Heidrick & Struggles, a leadership advisory firm providing senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services. Jose’s executive search work has focused on CEOs, COOs, and senior-level technology, supply chain, operations, quality and engineering executives.

Escrito por Jose J. Ruiz en abril 1, 2013 | Forbes.com.mx

Las enseñanzas del negocio de agentes libres de la NFL para los pagos y compensaciones en el mundo corporativo.

Para muchos, el periodo entre el súper tazón y el inicio de la siguiente temporada de la NFL es una etapa aburrida con poca acción. En lo personal, me parece un periodo fascinante en donde se expone la dinámica del negocio detrás del juego. Las negociaciones entre los equipos y los agentes libres es un juego de póker en donde siempre hay ganadores y perdedores.

Uno de los aspectos que más me intriga, por su relación con el mundo corporativo, es el tema de la valuación de talento. Siempre es interesante analizar la interdependencia, la dinámica y la volatilidad generada por lo que un jugador considera que vale, lo que su equipo considera que vale y lo que otros equipos consideran que vale.

La interdependencia es una consideración muy importante porque el valor de un jugador depende del contexto y las demás opciones que el equipo pueda tener para enfrentar un reto. Ahí es en donde la dinámica se convierte en volatilidad y la volatilidad se convierte en riesgo.

Un ejemplo de alta visibilidad fue la situación de Joe Flacco, mariscal de campo del campeón Baltimore. Flacco se convirtió en agente libre al terminar la temporada del 2012 y la renegociación de su contrato se convirtió en un juego de póker que se jugó desde el final de la temporada hasta las fechas posteriores al Súper Tazón en el 2013. La apuesta del equipo era tratar de firmar a un valor conservador antes de terminar la temporada. La apuesta de Flacco era terminar una temporada estelar y firmar un contrato al nivel de los mariscales élite. Flacco gano esa mano.

Aquí es en donde empiezan las similitudes con el mundo corporativo, en donde los ejecutivos ven las historias de éxito como un componente clave para incrementar su valor y renegociar su compensación. En donde las diferencias empiezan a florecer es en el hecho de que la mayoría de los ejecutivos no perciben su valor o su compensación en función del mercado, por lo menos no más allá de lo que ganan sus amigos, compadres, o el vecino de oficina. La tendencia general es considerar que el valor y la compensación siguen una trayectoria lineal en incremento constante tomando siempre como punto de referencia la compensación actual. Muy apegado al modelo del incremento salarial anual.

Lo que muchos ejecutivos pierden de vista es que el modelo lineal se topa o se rompe en el valor de mercado. El valor y la compensación no sólo son una función de lo que pueden traer a la mesa. Es una función de lo que una empresa está dispuesta a pagar por el servicio. He escuchado frases como “merezco más porque he traído millones de dólares de negocio a la empresa.” La respuesta es muy sencilla. Mereces más si la demás gente que puede traer lo mismo a la mesa es compensada mejor que tú. Mereces menos si la demás gente que puede traer lo mismo a la mesa cuesta menos.

Y aquí es en donde se rompe el asunto. Esto es lo que la mayoría de nosotros nos negamos a aceptar a pesar de la evidencia: El modelo de valor y compensación en el mundo ejecutivo no es lineal y no está en incremento constante. Esta es la otra cara de la moneda.

Veamos el ejemplo de James Harrison de los Acereros de Pittsburgh. Harrison determinó su valor en base a su gran historial de carrera. Le aposto a negociar duro con esa carta y perdió. La organización determinó que su valor era menor. Inesperadamente (para Harrison) los Acereros decidieron retirarse de la mesa y permitir que Harrison buscara empleo en otro lado ante la discrepancia en lo que cada parte consideraba que valía. El consenso de los analistas es que el mercado abierto no va a ser muy grato con él.

Otros jugadores han aceptado renegociar sus contratos y ajustar su compensación hacia abajo para alinear su valor con el mercado.

Esta realidad no es diferente en el mundo ejecutivo. Quizá la diferencia es que en el mundo de los agentes libres aceptan ampliamente el modelo y en el mundo ejecutivo aún batallamos para digerirlo. La mayoría de nosotros preferimos enfrentar el resultado de Harrison y atribuir la situación a factores externos a considerar que quizá ya nos salimos de mercado y nuestro valor ya no es el mismo.

Algo que pensar.

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Jose J. Ruiz is a Principal in Heidrick & Struggles, a leadership advisory firm providing senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services. Jose’s executive search work has focused on CEOs, COOs, and senior-level technology, supply chain, operations, quality and engineering executives.

With that in mind, Dave Winston and Mark Nadler went in search of the best suggestions for new CEOs on how to get off to a successful start, and the people we turned to were CEOs whose memories of their first weeks and months on the job were still fresh. We conducted more than 50 confidential interviews with CEOs from companies big and small; they were divided almost evenly between public and private companies, and between CEOs who had come up through the ranks internally and those recruited externally. While there were a few differences (in particular, between internal and external CEOs), the lessons they learned were remarkably consistent. Given a second chance to start out again as CEO, they told us, here’s what they would do differently.

Read the full article here.

About Heidrick & Struggles
Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc., (Nasdaq:HSII) is the leadership advisory firm providing senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services, including succession planning, executive assessment and development, talent retention management, transition consulting for newly appointed executives, and M&A human capital integration consulting. For almost 60 years, we have focused on quality service and built strong leadership teams through our relationships with clients and individuals worldwide. Today, Heidrick & Struggles’ leadership experts operate from principal business centers in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information about Heidrick & Struggles, please visit www.heidrick.com

On August 31, 1997 Fast Company published an article by Tom Peters called “A brand called You”. The article triggered an incredible amount of thought leadership pieces and discussion related to personal branding.

In his article Peters begins by stating “Big companies understand the importance of brands. Today, in the age of the individual, you have to be your own brand” as he exhorts readers to be “the CEO of Me Inc.”

“Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You” says Peters, in his iconic and timeless article.

The concept is simple. The execution is not. Any engineer, product manager, or marketer will tell you that creating a solid brand is a complicated endeavor. This is especially true for brands that require substance and a solid product. What would the Apple brand be without its incredible products? Products and services make brands. They can make them forgettable or immortal. The caveat is that an unforgettable brand is not necessarily always positive. Think Ford Pinto.

Your challenge is to define, build, and develop your product and make sure it is at the core of your brand.

The concept of personal brand actually predates Tom Peter’s article. In 1981 Al Ries and Jack Trout introduced it in their book: “Positioning: The Battle for your Mind.” Rise and Trout’s book, as proclaimed in its back cover, is the first to deal with the problems of communicating to a skeptical, media-blitzed public, the book describes a revolutionary approach to creating a “position” in a prospective customer’s mind that reflects a company’s own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of its competitors.

In this example, the company is you and the customer is whoever will be knocking on your door to pay for your services. Your competitors are other individuals that could potentially do it better, faster, and for less money.

In chapter 23 of their book Ries and Trout point that you can benefit by using positioning strategy to advance your own career.

Key principle: “Don’t try to do everything yourself. Find a horse to ride”. Translated into the concepts that we have been using in this column: Identify your strongest and most relevant competencies and put all your weight and resources behind them to stand-out and position yourself above your competitors.

The product of you is built by:

• Your academic and theoretical base
• Your practical experience within an industry
• Your theoretical and practical experience related to certain products or services
• Your practical management and leadership experience
• Your practical experience serving a specific market

Your brand and position will be defined by what you can achieve (potential) supported by what you have already achieved (evidence).

Notice that four of the five components are based on practical experience. The product of You is built by everything you do: every job, every training course, every challenge, every achievement, every failure, every social and personal endeavor. They will all define who you are and what you can offer in the next step of your career.

Consider that positioning has three key components: selecting a space, positioning yourself within the peer group in that space, and positioning ahead of your peer group in the space. Before you can pass someone you need to be running with them. In other words, the concept assumes that you are already competitive in your space. If you set out to be the world’s top neurosurgeon, you need to start by being a neurosurgeon.

Space can be defined by geographical region, industry, markets, an organization, or professional discipline. Selecting a space is perhaps the trickiest of the three components. It is tricky because most of us step into a space unconsciously and as a product of circumstance early in our careers. While not entirely impossible, it is difficult to make a significant change mid career, or later, if we can’t leverage our many years of experience in a new endeavor. When you take out previous experience you take out the evidence component of your brand leaving only potential. How comfortable would you feel hiring a car mechanic that only has proven experience fixing washing machines, but is willing to work hard and learn?

The product of You will always be seen, measured, and scrutinized within the context of the space.

In most situations we’re left with analyzing our personal inventory of knowledge and experience to determine the parts that we already have to build our brand and product. If you look well enough you will be surprised at what you can find in that parts bin.

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Jose J. Ruiz is a Principal in Heidrick & Struggles, a leadership advisory firm providing senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services. Jose’s executive search work has focused on CEOs, COOs, and senior-level technology, supply chain, operations, quality and engineering executives.

One of the best books I have read in recent years is “The World is Flat” by Thomas L. Friedman. Friedman elaborates thoroughly on the globalization forces that are changing the world. He refers to a flat world where forces are empowering more and more individuals today to reach farther, faster, deeper, and cheaper than ever before. “…equalizing power – and equalizing opportunity, by giving so many more people the tools and ability to connect, compete, and collaborate” says Friedman. “In my view, this flattening of the playing field is the most important thing happening in the world today, and those who get caught up in measuring globalization purely by trade statistics – or as a purely economic phenomenon instead of one that affects everything from individual empowerment to culture to how hierarchical institutions operate – are missing the impact of this change.”

Every morning when I wake-up my iPhone greets me with over 20 emails from people in other time zones -The real kind, not the offers to help Mr. Mobatu recover money from an overseas bank account. As I was sleeping last night I received an email from a colleague in our London office recommending an individual in Qatar for a position in Latin America for company operating out of Houston but with corporate offices in London. The gentleman is from Argentina, educated in the US and living in the Middle East. This is not exception for what I get to see on a daily basis, this is the norm.

My next email was from a programmer who lives in Indore, the largest city and the commercial capital of the Madhya Pradesh state in India. He is helping me with a weekend project and had some screen shots that he wanted me to review. I also had two emails from our firm’s Knowledge Management Center in New Delhi. They are helping us with a market study for Latin America and had put together a great report.

All of this happens because, as Friedman pointed out, the world is now flat. While the legislators in the United States were busy debating how to stop the flow of talent into the country to protect jobs, the jobs went out. But that’s in the past now. I’m very curious to see how the will address the current phenomenon. Maybe they will be smart enough to realize they can’t address much. Many jobs are now where people with the right level of expertise at the right price are. That’s the competitive world of today.

Last week I met with a CEO and his executive team in the meeting room of a hotel in Houston to discuss strategy for Mexico. I was naive enough to ask if we should meet in their corporate office.

The CEO proudly pointed out that the corporate office was where the executive team would happen to be at the time. He live in Detroit, others in Minneapolis, New York, Dallas and Houston. They meet every quarter at a different operating site. This is not a dot-com. It’s not even a technology company. It’s as old school as you can get: secondary steel processing private company that started in the Midwest 45 years ago.

Notice that I’m not implying the world is going virtual and that everything is happening through the internet. It’s a big part of the change but this is not THE change. The team I just described works with raw material you can touch flowing in from Russia, Mexico and the US. They process it in union factories in different countries. I’m talking about a world that is disregarding regions and borders and simply looking at language, distance and time as an inconvenience. Not a barrier.

I know that many of you might be thinking that this does not apply to you and this is not a reflection of your field, industry, region, or town.

If you feel your world has not changed ,odds are it has, but you just have not noticed or paid attention.

The competition for your job, or the job you want, is intense and is not always direct. The playing field is leveled. My client in Houston will want to speak to the gentleman in Argentina, who works in Qatar because he clearly understands a global business culture, knows their industry and has experience in Latin America. I hired the programmer in Indore because he had strong expertise in the platform I’m working with at a very reasonable price. The CEO I spoke to last week hired his VP of Sales because he had deep knowledge on engineering related to his product.

Ask yourself these questions: The current job is mine because_________? I will get hired for the job I want because__________?

Now, as you respond to these keep in mind the answer can’t be vague or generalist and it has to come in the context of why an organization will choose you over someone else. It’s about your competitive advantage. You are a product competing in a global market. Why are you better than the rest? How do you maintain that edge? Who can replace you? What can make you irrelevant?

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Jose J. Ruiz is a Principal in Heidrick & Struggles, a leadership advisory firm providing senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services. Jose’s executive search work has focused on CEOs, COOs, and senior-level technology, supply chain, operations, quality and engineering executives.

In last week’s column Why change can slap you in the face and blind-side your career we discussed the two main factors that are changing the world: Globalization and the rate of change – speed.

It’s important to note this is not your father’s globalization. It’s not even the globalization you knew 10 years ago. Globalization has evolved from trade of goods into a highly elaborate interdependence that includes the trade and exchange of knowledge, ideas, and information. In this new world professionals and knowledge workers compete with little barriers across the globe. It’s a game changer for both individuals and organizations.

Read full column at SanDiegoRed.com

By definition we are blindsided when we are struck by something that is not in our sight. Simply put, when we get hammered by the unexpected.

From a career perspective it is defined by a shift in our environment that forces a situation of change that we did not expect and most likely we were not prepared for. It just happens. You probably know someone in that situation now and there is a strong chance you have probably been there yourself.

The more comfortable you are, the more secure you feel, the more likely it will happen. It…

In our first staff meeting he began talking about changes in the department. He spoke of creating design standards and changing the way we did things towards a more structured approach that would foster continuous learning and improvement. Half way through his speech one of the guys that had been there for a long time interrupted him and began to say “In my 10 years of experience…”, and that was really as far as he got before he was interrupted and harshly told “Jack (let’s just call him that), before you continue, let’s get this straight: You have one year of experience and then just 9 more doing the same thing. At some point you’ll learn the difference”. Uncomfortable silence followed and the meeting continued. 

It was a truly unforgiving statement but with a lot of truth in it. Forcing ourselves to learn continually is hard and we tend to gravitate towards our comfort zone. 

In his book Talent is Overrated, Geoff Colvin mentions Noel Tichy’s illustration of concentric learning circles. Tichy, former chief of GE’s Crotonville management development center, labels the inner circle the “comfort zone,” the middle circle the “learning zone,” and the outer one the “panic zone.” It is well documented that we acquire knowledge and experience by developing activities in the learning zone, but this is only one part of the equation. 

Getting back to the career theme, learning for the sake of learning can be a waste of time and learning as a simple reaction to what we face can lead us in the wrong direction. 

Consider every lesson, every interaction, every position and every experience as a building block of your potential. High performers build on solid foundations that allow them to focus on elements that average performers don’t even consider or notice. They begin to make decisions and execute at a higher level. 

Consider the analogy of learning to play hockey. You need to start by knowing how to skate. Understand the objective of the game, the rules and the broad strategy. As you keep learning you start to develop speed and instinct that allow you to react at a high speed and at some point, at a high level, predict.  If any of us mortals is placed in front of a hockey goal and we are asked to block a shot, it’s very likely that we will focus on the puck. A professional will be looking at the shooter’s eyes, shoulders and hip movements. He will know where the puck is going the moment it is touched by the stick.   

These same principals apply to business. To achieve a certain level in an organization or as a business owner you need to know where you want to go, how you need to “build yourself”, understand the building blocks and most importantly take continuous and persistent steps towards getting it done. 

I’ll make an emphasis on continuous and persistent because it does not happen overnight. In fact, it will not happen over a few years. Studies have shown that people on top of their game have been focused on it for more than a decade. 

If you are not paying attention and not working towards a firm goal, by the time you realize it, you may find yourself with scattered building blocks of knowledge and experience that are no where close to being aligned to where you wanted to be. 

So, do you or will you:
a) Have 10 years of experience
b) Have one year of experience, and 9 more doing the same thing
c) Have 1 year of experience in 10 unrelated things.  

Definition of  TALENT: “General intelligence or mental power : ability”

Definition of ABILITY: “Competence in doing : skill”

Definition of SKILL: “The ability to use one’s knowledge effectively and readily in execution or performance”

The current challenge is to identify where you can be a ‘speed factor’ in your position, product and market and continue to build on what you have to increase your impact in a company or organization. 

Every day as I walk into my office I face the dual phenomenon of calls from talented people who do not have a job and of clients who are struggling because we can’t find the right talent. There once was a time when a good sales person was a good sales person. Now when clients call us they want a good sales person but with solid product and application knowledge and proven success in a specific market or channel.

There is no way around it. Companies want people that will come in and hit the ground running. They want great talent with experience in the position, the product and the market with little room for a learning curve. It has become more difficult, for both talented people and companies to match, as each one of those elements become more and more specialized.

According to Delloite Research in 1998 the average time to market for a new product was 18.1 months and on average a company’s revenue from new products was around 21%. In 2007 the average time to market had dropped to 12.8 months and the average revenue had increased to 34%. The reliance on new products and innovation is evident in every single industry. As Jason Jennings’ book title reads “It’s not the BIG that eat the SMALL, It’s the FAST that eat the SLOW”.

Fast and the speed of having ‘been there, done that’ is currently shaping the demand for talent. Fast learning is very important, but with a strong, solid knowledge and experience base.

The current challenge is to identify where you can be a ‘speed factor’ in your position, product and market and continue to build on what you have to increase your impact in a company or organization. 

Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc., (Nasdaq:HSII) is the leadership advisory firm providing senior-level executive search and leadership consulting services, including succession planning, executive assessment and development, talent retention management, transition consulting for newly appointed executives, and M&A human capital integration consulting. For almost 60 years, we have focused on quality service and built strong leadership teams through our relationships with clients and individuals worldwide. Today, Heidrick & Struggles’ leadership experts operate from principal business centers in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information about Heidrick & Struggles, please visit www.heidrick.com